English lesson plans

for Grade 10
Lessons in this section
10 Foundation 1 Reading a discussion text: Email. 290
10 Foundation 2 Writing a discussion text: too much TV 293
10 Advanced 1 Listening: town planning 297
10 Advanced 2 Speaking and grammar: What if …? 302
Resource sheets for the lessons 306

Using these lesson plans

The lessons for Grade 10 represent the four skills: listening, speaking, reading and
writing. The lessons for the Foundation level are linked to show how two lessons
can be integrated to build new language and skills. The Advanced level lessons are
more discrete. The objectives for the lessons are drawn from the curriculum
standards. Main standards are listed in bold and subsidiary standards in normal
print under the objectives at the top of the lesson plan
Each lesson plan has sufficient material to support at least 45 minutes of direct
teaching. It should be borne in mind that the activities may stretch into a homework
or the next lesson. Teachers may need to supplement the activities provided with
additional simpler or more complex tasks if they have a mixed ability class. If there
is too much material for 45 minutes (this depends on the class), it is up to the
teacher to designate which activities will become homework or carry through to the
next lesson. However, to maximise the learning cycle, teachers should be selective
about which tasks to cut, and not just drop the last task because it comes at the end.
Answer keys are provided to guide teacher correction and feedback but where tasks
are subjective, these answers are not intended to be presented to students as the
only ‘right’ way of completing the given tasks.
The lesson plans are generally organised as three-stage lessons with a feedback
session at the end to sum up learning for students. In the reading, writing and
listening lessons, the three stages are pre-, while, and post- (e.g. pre-reading, while
reading and post-reading). The speaking and grammar lesson plan 2 for Grade 10
Advanced is organised as the three stages presentation, practice, and production
plus a fourth stage, further presentation, to lead into the next topic.
The lesson plans do not include revision warmers at the beginning to review
language learned in previous lessons. However, review and homework stages are
necessary parts of the lesson and should be provided by the teacher.

289 | English sample lessons | Grade 10 © Supreme Education Council 2004

 10F.1 Reading a discussion text:
Email
Objectives • Read and analyse a discussion text.
Grade 10F curriculum
• Skim and scan written and screen-based texts for information.
standards 7.7, 6.3

Pre- reading
Students do not necessarily have to read the whole text at any stage. The
Resources relevant information can be gleaned by completing the exercises
OHT 10F.1a
Set the scene
Show OHT 10F.1a. Ask the students what they think the topic of the text will be
and elicit ‘email’. Find out how many of them regularly use email, how many have
their own personal email address.
Open prediction
Write a large ‘plus’ sign on the board and next to it a large ‘minus’ sign. Elicit
some advantages of using email.
It’s easy.
Write this on the board under the plus sign, in note form. Now elicit some
disadvantages of using email.
It’s impersonal.
Write the example on the board under the minus sign.

+ -
easy impersonal

Split the class into four groups. Ask two of the groups to think of advantages while
the other two groups think of disadvantages. After five minutes, get students to
feed back and a representative from each group to write three or four examples on
the board, no repetitions.
While reading
Ordering
Resources
Before the lesson, cut out the blocks of text on teacher’s resource 10F.1 and place
Teacher’s resource the cut-up parts into separate envelopes. Make enough sets for the activity to be
10F.1
Worksheet 10F.1a
done in small groups, one envelope per group. Put the students into small groups
OHT 10F.1b and hand give them their envelopes. Ask students to sort the cut-up parts into
Worksheet 10F.1b ‘Introduction’, ‘Advantages’, ‘Disadvantages’ and ‘Conclusion’. While sorting the
advantages and disadvantages, get the groups to see how many are the same as the
ones they predicted. They should make a brief note of the ones they missed or were
not looking for.
Take back the cut-up versions from each group and hand worksheet 10F.1a to
each student. Ask the students individually to think of a title for the text. Don’t
give them any ideas at this stage. They write the title they have chosen in pencil at
the top of the text.

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 Text analysis
Show OHT 10F1.b. In their groups, get students to follow the questions and write
brief notes to answer them. Lead the discussion and point the students in the right
direction.
Answer key
1 Introduction, Advantages, Disadvantages, Conclusion
2 Yes
3 Start with disadvantages; towards the end, mention why people like email but then find
fault with this idea, conclude with a strong statement suggesting the abolition of or an
alternative to email.
4 There are indeed many advantages to …
5 All is not entirely positive, however. There are several disadvantages …
6 The introduction: like any innovation, it has its advantages …
The conclusion: Overall, though, it is safe to conclude that …
7 Horizontal: advantage – disadvantage; advantage – disadvantage; advantage –
disadvantage etc.
8 Advantages: also, another prime consideration is …, this also means …,
Disadvantages: also leads to another problem, many users find that one major
disadvantage is …, there is also the serious problem of …, another problem is that …

Comprehension exercises
Hand out worksheet 10F.1b. Have students work individually on exercises
‘Vocabulary focus’ and ‘Reading for information’ and check their answers with a
partner. Guide students towards the answers by pointing to specific parts of the
text. Get them to reference their own answers from the text in this way too, quoting
specific line numbers.
Answer key
Vocabulary focus

Line Vocabulary phrase Meaning

38 it can only handle text only words can be sent
24 constraints limitations
24 overall range of expression what you can really say
13 prime consideration an important thing to think about
19 awkward difficult
27 (to) retrieve (something) to get something back
22 nuances small differences in meaning
Reading for information
1 Appropriate software such as Outlook Express or Eudora.
2 Nothing, it is free.
3 Spam
4 Graphics, sound files and other types of documents.

Post-reading
Group discussion
Resources
Get students to work individually on the exercise ‘Opinion’ on worksheet 10F.1b
Worksheet 10F.1b and to fill in some notes in the spaces provided in the worksheet. Then put students
into groups of four and have them share and compare their ideas and opinions.
Remind them of the conversation strategies they already know for turn-taking,

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 eliciting ideas from each other, expressing opinions and agreeing and disagreeing.
Monitor the groups, and help students to express their ideas.
Further activity
Prior to the lesson, get each member of the class to set up a web-based email
address to be used exclusively for this class (e.g. at Hotmail, Yahoo! or G-mail).
Each person should have a designated recipient, except for one who links to the
teacher. Get the group to form a chain in this way, with the teacher at the beginning
and end. Send a short one-line message to the first student, who then adds another
partial sentence (maximum of 10 words) and forwards it to their recipient, until a
story is built up and received in full by you. An example of an opening sentence
might be:
It was a dark and stormy night…

Summary for students

In the lesson, you read a discussion text about email and the advantages and
disadvantages of its use. You practised predicting what might appear in a text and
looked at the structure of a discussion text.
• The opening statement puts forward the question for discussion, without stating
any preference, sometimes with a preview of the main issues.
• The arguments for, plus supporting evidence, are followed by the arguments
against, plus supporting evidence.
• An alternative to this is to present, one by one, an argument for followed by the
corresponding argument against.
• The text concludes with a summary, a conclusion and possible
recommendations.
You identified the arguments on both sides of the discussion and gave your own
opinion on the subject.
You also undertook an activity using email yourselves.
In the next lesson, we’re going to try writing our own discussion texts.

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 10F.2 Writing a discussion text:
too much TV
Objectives • Plan a piece of writing in note or diagrammatic form.
Grade 10F curriculum
• Write a discussion text.
standards 8.2 9.5

Pre-writing
Before the lesson, cut up the words and sentence strips on teacher’s resource
Resources 10F.2 and. prepare some way of sticking these strips to the board.
Teacher’s resource
Brainstorm
10F.2
OHT 10F.2 Set the scene. Start by showing the students OHT 10F.2. Elicit what they think the
Worksheet 10F.2 topic of the day’s lesson will be.
Television. The good and the bad. The effects of TV on children.
• Do you watch television? Why / why not?
• What types of programmes do you enjoy?
• What types of things do you find out by watching television?
• When and where do you watch TV?
• What times of day is the TV on?
• If you do not watch television, what are your alternative means of finding
information / entertainment? What are the advantages of these?
Input
Tell students they are going to write a short essay about the advantages and
disadvantages of TV and the effects it has on children.
On each of the four walls of the classroom, stick one of the signs, ‘Introduction’,
‘Advantages’, ‘Disadvantages’, ‘Conclusion’, from teacher’s resource 10F.2.
Hand out one idea strip each to individual students. It does not matter if some
students don’t have one as they can join with someone who does. All students
should read their strip to themselves and then move to the part of the room into
which they think their sentence or phrase fits.
Get the members of each group to discuss whether they think their sentence or phrase
fits into that category. Have them stick the idea strips to the wall under the sign.
Feed back to whole class, focussing on the ideas which you think have been placed
under the wrong sign. Discuss with the class and decide where they really belong.
Answer key
Introduction
More time watching television than in school and talking to their parents
Television plays a significant role in our daily life
Two sides to every coin
Concern about the effects of television on children
American children watch about 22–28 hours per week
Approximately one billion TV sets in use worldwide

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 Advantages
Broadens our horizon
Most widespread source of information
Informs us about current events
Lot of scientific and nature programs
Provides simple, cheap entertainment
Provides access to new ideas and learning
Children are kept busy, giving parents time to rest
Does not require people to be literate
Relieves boredom and provides high quality entertainment
It takes us to places we’ve only dreamed of
Disadvantages
Seeing violence might lead children to think the real world is more dangerous than it really is
Reduces opportunities for children to work out basic family relationships
Provides answers too easily
Slows down verbal development because the child is silent while watching it
Discourages the sort of games that enable the young to discover their strengths and
weaknesses
Violence stimulates aggressive behaviour
Selection of programmes may cause conflict in the family
Breaks down communication within the family and social life suffers
Less positive role models are popular, like the Simpsons
It can become an addiction.
Conclusion
You don’t have to eliminate television completely, but at least set limits
Watch TV with your children whenever possible
Provide alternative entertainment and stimulation
Do not put the TV in the main room in the house
It can be a very useful and enjoyable medium, but needs to be used with care
Make watching television or videos a treat, not a right

Hand out worksheet 10F.2 to each student. This contains the complete list of the
sentences and phrases, in alphabetical order. Get students to take their list and walk
around the classroom, looking at the sentences and phrases which have been placed
on the wall, and noting in the empty boxes on their grid which category each
belongs in (e.g. Int., Adv., Dis., Conc.).
Editing
Put students in pairs and get them to look at the list and discuss how to cut each
category down. Get them to decide if any of the sentences and phrases are similar
and therefore unnecessary. See if they can find issues they think are less important
or less relevant than others and so can be left out. It is up to you and your class to
decide which and how many to keep. There should be a balance between
advantages and disadvantages without an overcrowding of ideas.

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While writing Drafting the structure
Resources Get students to begin the drafting process.
Worksheet 10F.1a
1 Introduction – The topic sentence
Students choose one idea from their introduction list
Concern about the effects of television on children
Elicit from the students how to make this into a sentence by asking wh-type
questions.
• Who is concerned? Parents, teachers, society …
• When are they concerned? Nowadays, these days …
• How much concern is there? A lot, a great deal …
On the board, write the following sentence.
There is a great deal of concern nowadays among parents, about the effects of
television on children.

Television plays a significant role in our daily life.

• Whose life? Ours, people’s …
• When does it play this role? Nowadays, these days …
• How significant is this role? Very, highly …
• How true is this? It is certain …
Students write:

It is certain that television plays a very significant role in people’s lives these
days.

Students then look to their list for some extra information to support the
introduction.
American children watch about 22–28 hours per week
More time watching television than in school and talking to their parents
Following the same questioning process, students write an introduction.
2 Opposing viewpoints – Advantages and disadvantages
Students decide whether to start with the advantages or with the disadvantages.
Elicit the phrases they will need to introduce each section by referring them back to
the previous reading lesson on email. Specifically, get them to look at lines 4 and 5
on worksheet 10F.1a.
Like any innovation, it has its advantages and its share of disadvantages.
There are, indeed, many advantages to email.
Elicit a variety of words to link the advantages.
Also, another factor is, and, in addition, one more factor, moreover etc.

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 Get students to write their paragraph on advantages. Monitor for accuracy and
provide any vocabulary or sentence structures as necessary.
Now ask students to refer back to worksheet 10F.1a, line 21.
All is not entirely positive, however. There are several disadvantages, which
should be mentioned.
Or use the phrase from worksheet 10F.2.
Two sides to every coin.
Point out to students that the disadvantages section shows a contrasting viewpoint,
so words such as however and but or in contrast will be needed. Get students to
write their third paragraph, again monitoring and providing language and
correcting for accuracy.
3 The concluding paragraph
Get students to choose how to finish the essay, offering what they see as valid
recommendations.
• Which of the phrases would be the best one to finish on? It can be a very
useful and enjoyable medium, but needs to be used with care.
Get students to write their concluding paragraph and monitor as before.
Post-writing
Tell students to swap essays. Have them peer-correct first for grammatical
accuracy, then to check the number of advantages and disadvantages to make sure
there is a balance. They should number each one.
Tell students to write out a second draft for homework and hand it in to you on an
agreed date.
Feedback
Instead of giving feedback at this point, wait until you have corrected students’
second draft. Then take time in the lesson as you hand back their work to explain
your marking scheme, your criteria for assessment and the main issues in writing
that students should focus on. Give students class time to work on their own
corrections.

Summary for students

Plan your discussion writing the way we have done for this essay. Organise your
ideas and examples in a logical way. Use a structure like we have here. When you
have researched your information, place it into separate categories following that
structure. Then start building each part of the essay. Ask yourself questions about
the information you are putting in, especially wh-type questions: who, what, when,
where, why and also how. Use link words like in addition, moreover, however to
connect one idea to the next. Then transform the information inside this framework
to say what you want to say. This is how all good writers learn to write well.

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 10A.1 Listening: town planning
Objectives • Understand and respond to descriptions of places.
Grade 10A curriculum
• Report what people say or believe.
standards 3.2, 5.5, 9.6

Pre-listening
Some of the procedure and materials for this lesson are adapted from
Resources Teaching Listening Comprehension by Penny Ur, Cambridge University Press
Large map of Qatar 1984.
Before the lesson, stick a large town map of Qatar on the wall (Map of Qatar and
Doha City Published by Dallah Advertising Agency, PO Box 8545 Doha). If
possible, also have one map per group of four or five students. Otherwise, get
students to gather around the one on the wall and to step forward when they are
asked to point things out.
Set the scene
Refer to the map of Qatar. Ask the students the following questions.
• Where do you live? Can you point it out? Which square on the map?
• Where are we now? Is it on the map?
• Can you find the City Centre shops? F7
• Where is the Gold Market (Souq)? K7
• Can you find the Marriott Hotel? J10
• Why do you think it was built here? Near beach, close to airport
• Can you place
– Al-Diwan Al Emiri?J7
– Al Jazeera TV station? H4
– Aladdin’s Kingdom? C7
– The British Embassy? J6
– The main post office? H6
– The airport? M10
Tell students they are going to listen to a conversation between a group of town
planners. Elicit information from students.
• What do town planners do? They plan where to build buildings and roads etc
in a town.
• Who do they work for? Local/municipal authorities
• What skills do you need to be a town planner? Collecting information and
writing clear reports, analysing data and preparing policies, advising decision
makers, presenting proposals, negotiating

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 While Matching
listening
Tell students that the town planners have to decide where to build a number of
Resources buildings in their town. Hand out a copy of the map of the town (worksheet
Worksheets 10A.1a, 10A.1a) to each of the students. Explain to the students that there are five sites
10A.1b available for building on. These are marked A, B, C, D and E on the map. The five
Tape 10A.1 buildings they have to decide on are a new 5-star hotel, a hospital, a car-park, a
OHT 10A.1 petrol station, and a big supermarket.
Tell students to listen to the conversation and match which sites are designated for
which buildings. Tell them to fill in the letter on the grid.
Play tape 10A.1 once or twice and then put OHT 10A.1 on the screen. Have
students feedback the answers. If there are any disagreements, get them to listen
again and work it out for themselves, so that you emphasise the process of listening
rather than just ‘getting the right answers’.
Jigsaw listening
Divide the class into five groups. Allocate one of the five buildings to each group.
Hand out worksheet 10A.1b. Either give one per group and assign a secretary or
give one per student. Tell them that each group has to listen for the factors relevant
to why it was decided to build their building on the particular site. Have them write
brief notes next to their building as they listen. Play the tape once or twice (or
more, depending on the needs of the class) and monitor to ensure they are writing
notes as instructed. Get them to share and compare notes after each listening.
Monitor each group and point out anything missed or misunderstood.
Answer key
Supermarket near the shopping centre; more convenient for shoppers (site A).
Hotel near river with nice view, not too noisy, near the shopping centre (site B).
Petrol station on a busy road to catch the traffic (site C).
Car park convenient for shoppers and people visiting the stadium (site D).
Hospital in quiet area away from busy places (site E).

Carousel
When all the groups have sufficient notes, get one member of each group to move
to the next group and report the reasons for sitting their building where it is. Have
the ‘recipient’ group write the reasons in the relevant space. The same person then
moves round and reports to the next group and so on until all groups have a
complete grid. Monitor so that each of the ‘ambassadors’ is working at the same
speed, to prevent a bottleneck.

Post-listening Writing a report

Get each group to compose a short paragraph as a press release, announcing the
proposed construction of their building, reporting what the town planners said
about what the building will be like, where it will be and why it was decided to
situate it there. This can be done on computer, to make it look like a real
newspaper story, enhanced with photos etc. Tell them they should use reported
speech where relevant.
A spokesman from the Municipal Department stated that …
It was announced today that …

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 Feedback Monitor and correct, or collect the reports and use diagnostically for a later lesson.

Summary for students

In this lesson, you practised listening to discussion in a business-type meeting and

responded by taking notes, collecting and collating the information, reporting back,
orally and in writing in a coherent summary of main points and agreed action. You
then consolidated this information in a written report in a newspaper style.

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 Tape script Arthur: Right. Now as I understand it we have five sites available to us in
10A.1 town for the five projects which are proposed here on our list. Do
we all have a copy of the map?
Brian: Yes, and I’ve marked the five sites on the map, at locations A, B,
C, D and E. Site A, as you can see is on Main Street between Park
Road and Hill Road, opposite the big shopping centre. Site B is
situated between the river and Park Road. Site C is on Main Street,
by the river and opposite the swimming pool complex, site D is on
Hill Road if you look at the bottom of the map, and site E you will
see at the top right of the map.
Arthur: Thanks very much Brian. That’s very clearly laid out, I think we
can understand it quite well. Now as you know, we have to decide
on where to build a 5-star hotel, a hospital, a car-park, a petrol
station and a big supermarket. Can I have some suggestions please
where we should situate these projects?
Chris: Well, I think that the hotel would be best situated at site C. It’s
close to the river and it’s not far from the shopping centre.
Brian: I’m not sure that it’s such a suitable site. That’s a very noisy place
there as all the traffic coming off the motorway makes a lot of
noise along Main Street – it’s very busy and I think that perhaps
we need a quieter place for the hotel. How about site E or, if not,
then B or D?
Arthur: I suggest that site B is the most suitable for the hotel. It’s nice and
quiet, without being too far from the shopping centre, and it also
has a nice view, so we can make sure that the rooms are built with
a view of the river and the park.
Brian: I agree. I think Site B’s the most suitable.
Chris: OK, you’ve convinced me! What about the petrol station?
Arthur: Well, I think that we need to make sure that the site is on a busy
road to catch as much traffic as possible. Noise is not a factor
either. That means we have a choice between A and C.
Chris: Either would do. Let’s look at the other projects and come back to
that one. What about the hospital?
Brian: Again, we need to think about the noise factor. It has to be a quiet
place. D or E.
Arthur: I would say that E is definitely the best. Look how close D is to the
stadium. What about when there is a big football match on, and all
the spectators make a lot of noise and block Hill Road with all their
cars? I wouldn’t fancy trying to get an ambulance through that lot!
Brian: Well, the problem of parking is likely to be solved once we’ve
built the car-park. I do agree though that site E is more suitable for
the hospital. It is opposite the park as well, which means that
patients might be taken for walks there. OK, what about the car-
park?
Arthur: It might be a good idea to situate it at A, which will be more
convenient for the shopping centre.
Brian: Well, we did say that we might put the petrol station at A.

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 Chris: And don’t forget the supermarket.
Arthur: Let’s think about this … the supermarket needs to be near the
shopping centre. That’s more convenient for the shoppers. This
means that it has to be at site A.
Brian: Well, that solves another problem. If we put the supermarket at site
A, then the petrol station has to be at site C as that is the only other
site on a main road.
Arthur: And with the car-park at D, that will be more convenient for both
shoppers and people visiting the stadium. All agreed then.
Adapted from Teaching Listening Comprehension by Penny Ur,
Cambridge University Press 1984, and reproduced with
permission of the author and publisher

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 10A.2 Speaking and grammar:
What if …?
Objectives • Interact in group, paired and more formal discussion.
Grade 10A curriculum
• Use the second conditional to discuss possible scenarios based on hypothesis.
standards 4.5, 5.2, 5.3
• Understand initial presentation of third conditional.
Presentation
This lesson recycles the concept of conditionals from Grade 9 and makes an initial
Resources introduction of third conditional. This will lead into a full treatment of third
Worksheet 10A.2a conditional in subsequent lessons.
Questionnaire
Ask students when they were last angry about something. Elicit situations where
they were annoyed. Ask what they did about it, how they reacted, if they felt they
did the right thing by reacting or not reacting.
Hand out worksheet 10A.2a. Get students to circle the number relevant to their
feelings about each situation.
When the students have completed the task, put them in pairs and get them to discuss
their reactions, finding similarities and differences. Monitor and select one or two well-
expressed reactions and get those students to share their ideas with the whole class.
Practice
Finding partners
Resources
Hand out worksheet 10A.2b. Get students to read the situations on the left and
Worksheet 10A.2b then fill in the boxes on the right with their reactions. Get them to write key words
or notes rather than whole sentences, so that they speak more fluently and so that it
doesn’t become a reading aloud exercise. Once they have completed the form, ask
them to stand up, walk around and find someone else who would react in the same
way as them for one of the situations of the list. Get them to find any other
situations on the form that they would react to in the same way. Then give the class
a signal and tell them to find a new partner, this time someone with a very different
reaction to them for one of the situations. With their new partner, get them to find
as many different reactions as possible and have them discuss why they feel
differently about these issues.
Monitor and make notes of any problems students are having with second
conditionals.

Concept check
Get students to reflect on the language they were using in the Finding partners
speaking activity. Read out some of the typical errors you noted that directly relate
to the second conditional and get students to correct them.
Write this skeleton form for the second conditional on the board
If + _________, + _________ + verb

Elicit what goes in the gaps.

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 If + simple past + would/wouldn’t + verb

Elicit and write up an example directly related to the situations on worksheet

10A.2b.
If my neighbours played loud music till 4 a.m., I’d ask them to turn it down.

Elicit other words instead of if and get students to create sentences that follow on
from this situation.
unless: Unless it was really loud though, I probably wouldn’t say anything.
provided that: Provided that they turned it down, I wouldn’t be annoyed at all.
Elicit sentences with If I were …
If I were them, I’d feel embarrassed.
If I were really tired, I wouldn’t be so nice.
Don’t spend long on the concept check as this is not the first time students have
studied the second conditional. Briefly ask the following questions.
• Does this refer to the past, present or future? Future.
• Why do we use the simple past then? We just do! It is not a past meaning.
(It’s a subjunctive.)
• Is this a real situation or imaginary? Imaginary but possible.
Production
Before the lesson, cut out the descriptions on Teacher’s resource 10A.2a and stick
Resources them on coloured card. Cut out the yes/no boxes and stick them on different
Teacher’s resources coloured card. Keep the two sets of cards separate.
10A.2a, 10A.2b
Question and answer game
Split the class into two groups: the question group and the answer group. Give a
question card to each member of the question group. Give either a ‘yes’ or a ‘no’
card to each member of the answer group. Get the question group to formulate
yes/no questions in the second conditional from their cards. Taking it in turns,
members of the question group pick a person from the answer group and ask them
the question. The answer group member must answer according to which card they
have, and say why. The questioner can follow up with further questions. If you
like, you can keep a score: one point for every well-asked question, one point for
every well-justified answer.
Demonstrate a first round with two students before playing the game for real.

If + (break) … friend’s TV remote control … confess?

A: If you broke your friend’s TV remote control, would you confess?

B: No, I think I would just hide it under a cushion and say nothing. I would be
ashamed.
A: What if they found it under the cushion?
B: I’d pretend I’d never seen it before.
Monitor turn-taking so that the maximum number of students can be involved. Get
the groups to swap roles.
Teacher’s resource 10A.2b has a long list of questions which could be used for
this exercise and to stimulate further discussion.

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 Further Before the lesson, cut out and stick onto cards, the words from Teacher’s resource
presentation 10A.2c. Stick them on the board and number each word.

Resources
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
Teacher’s resource
10A.2c IF AHMAD HAD STUDIED HE WOULD HAVE PASSED

Substitution table
Ask students the following questions.
• Can we change things that have happened in the past? No.
• What do you do when you look back at things in the past and wish that
they hadn’t turned out that way? Imagine how things could have been
different.
Go through the sentence on the board.
• Did Ahmad study? No.
• Did he pass? No.
Hand out to students the other word cards and ask the students to come to the board
place them in the appropriate column.
Answer key

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
IF AHMAD HAD STUDIED HE WOULD HAVE PASSED
NUR HADN’T WORKED SHE WOULDN’T PASSED
BADER DRIVEN SLOWLY HAD AN ACCIDENT
KHALID TAKEN A TAXI BEEN LATE

Get students to work in pairs and make four or five sentences from the words in the
substitution table.
If Nur hadn’t worked, she wouldn’t have passed
Check.
• Did she work? Yes
• Did she pass? Yes
If Bader had taken a taxi, he wouldn’t have been late.
Check.
• Did he take a taxi? No
• Was he late? Yes
Students then compose three more sentences and write a brief description of a
scenario which the sentence might fit.
If Khalid had taken a taxi, he wouldn’t have been late.
Khalid arrived late for work. His car broke down on the way.

304 | English sample lessons | Grade 10 © Supreme Education Council 2004

 Feedback Monitor and correct students’ written sentences. Check that students have
understood the regretful or hypothetical nature of their third conditional sentences
– that in fact the if and result clause actions didn't happen. Check that this idea of
‘unreal past’ is expressed in their brief scenarios of what actually did happen. Try
to focus in your feedback as much on meaning as on accuracy of form.

Summary for students

This lesson focussed on conditionals; ideas with if and words like if. The first part
of the lesson was recycling what you studied in Grade 9 – the second conditional.
The second conditional is for situations in the future which are imaginary,
hypothetical and to varying degrees possible. You talked about what you would do
and how you would react in a range of hypothetical situations.
The second part of the lesson was to introduce the third conditional. You talked
about situations in the past, which cannot be changed, but you imagined what it
would have been like under different circumstances, if the event had not happened.
So that’s when we use the third conditional: to discuss alternatives to what actually
happened in the past. We’ll be doing more work on the third conditional in the next
set of lessons.

305 | English sample lessons | Grade 10 © Supreme Education Council 2004